Following the June 2016 closure of the Virginia Aviation Museum in Richmond, Virginia, 12 aircraft that had been on show there for the past three decades will be moving to the Shannon Air Museum in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which is due to reopen in the late spring.
Two of the key exhibits — SPAD VII B9913, built by Mann Egerton & Company at Hellesdon near Norwich, Norfolk in 1917, and the world’s only surviving Vultee V-1A, NC16099, once owned by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst — have already moved to Fredericksburg. A Pitcairn PA-5 Mailwing and Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket are among the other 10 aircraft that will go on show in a recently renovated hangar, alongside memorabilia, aviation arte facts and artworks.
An aeronautical Art Deco treasure, the world’s only surviving Vultee V-1A, NC16099, was owned during the 1930s by the notorious news paper magnate William Randolph Hearst.
VIA EDWARD ANDREWS
